With the school’s out increase of children playing outdoors and the surging use of scooters by the disabled, safety concerns took up several minutes of the end of May’s last Metropolis City Council mtg.

The council met May 28 due to the memorial day holiday. Alderman Kim brown was absent.

Alderman Jerry Mizell began the discussion.

“Traffic, kids in the street playing. You can’t control, police can’t control anything and the parents is gonna have to help control the kids,” he said. “School’s out and you’ve got them running in the streets and alleys. Parents are gonna have to do their part and keep their kids out of the streets. The mayor’s helping by putting Kids Playing signs up. That’s helped in one area.”

That was quickly followed by Alderman David Daugherty questioning why scooters — also known as mobility scooters or electric wheelchairs such as Hoveround or Rascal — don’t have red flags to alert drivers of their presence.

“There’s no law,” Police Chief Harry Masse replied. “There’s noting that really regulates those motorized scooters. There’s no law that requires a red flag. It’s common sense. It’s also common sense that they wouldn’t ride them at night down the street either, but we’ve had a few of them also.”

“You should still stop the son of a guns,” Daugherty responded. “Seriously, this is dangerous and there are plenty that we have in town here. There are a lot of them, and it’s a dangerous situation.”

Masse noted that while two-wheeled scooters and golf carts are regulated by the state, “motorized chairs have no regulation or any enforcement capabilities. They’re not even covered in the vehicle code. Golf carts are allowed unless you specifically make them illegal,” he said.